Whitman Teacher and Crew Coach Arrested

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a shame that Shipley answered to two different managing groups (MCPS and a parent-led crew board) and neither entity was able to detect what was going on.

Crew is a somewhat unique sport in terms of needing to communicate with students about changes in venue due to weather, etc at odd times and sometimes, at the last minute. If left to their own devices, coaches find it easiest to communicate via text (albeit to the whole team or at least captains). Other crew teams insist on alternative means of communication so that no one is vulnerable to what happened in this case.

You communicate through the parents, not students. How is this even a question that you communicate through parents.

My kids ran track and cross country. Various meet-day texts filtered through me would have not have reached my kids. Coaches do need to reach kids, just not one-to-one.

I would imagine that you communicate to kids in a format where parents are automatically copied. My kids aren’t on HS teams, but i would imagine that it is not that hard. Am I missing something ?

My child has had a track team use the GroupMe ap. Another uses TeamSnap. MCPS should probably at this point come up with it’s own ap.

Point being, it’s obvious everything is ok if the entire team and parents see the communication. Open and transparent. Sending group messages protects the students. It protects the coach. MCPS bans any private messages so your child’s coach is doing that, you should read your child’s text messages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This makes me feel like we need a “town hall” of some sort to have an open dialogue with other teachers to ask them why this tends to be the case. I mean, maybe it would be suitable at Whitman because every single teacher should have known that Shipley’s behavior was unusual. And yet they let it happen under their noses. I don’t think it’s a teacher’s job to police/catch other teachers that are abusers….but surely if enough teachers saw red flags with Shipley’s behavior, or even yellow or orange flags…over the course of 20 years….and discreetly mentioned these to peers….surely he was already someone who they must have had suspicions about. And no one was brave enough to test their suspicions with him—say, by “accidentally” dropping by his classroom at lunchtime to let him know that people found his behavior unacceptable or to simply scope out to confirm a hunch.
I’d want to have an open discussion—why did teachers look the other way? Not all Shipley’s stuff was out in the open, but he sure must have caused suspicion by hanging out with girls all the time. Even the PP from Philly remembers her MS teacher’ inappropriate behavior! I remember the inappropriate behavior of mine (in NJ)…taking 2 girls aside 1 week to photograph them doing gymnastic poses, for a “project”.

Teachers knew. What about the Social Studies teachers?

Do school administrators ever walk the halls and check on what is happening in classrooms during lunch?

Yes. A town hall is needed to discuss the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kirkland Shipley seems to be looking for a new job in Hungary
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-shipley-b18842174?trk=people-guest_people_search-card" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-shipley-b18842174?trk=people-guest_people_search-card

Likely he’ll try to have his Internet profile scrubbed like a certain HOS at Sheridan did several years ago ….before landing a job in Africa

Plaease send this to the DC prosecutor on his case. He's got a hearing in 2 weeks and they can ask the judge to make him surrender his passport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes. A town hall is needed to discuss the problem.

Hahah are you new to MCPS? They will send people from Central Office to run it, just like they did with the redistricting meetings. Nothing will come from it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a shame that Shipley answered to two different managing groups (MCPS and a parent-led crew board) and neither entity was able to detect what was going on.

Crew is a somewhat unique sport in terms of needing to communicate with students about changes in venue due to weather, etc at odd times and sometimes, at the last minute. If left to their own devices, coaches find it easiest to communicate via text (albeit to the whole team or at least captains). Other crew teams insist on alternative means of communication so that no one is vulnerable to what happened in this case.

You communicate through the parents, not students. How is this even a question that you communicate through parents.

My kids ran track and cross country. Various meet-day texts filtered through me would have not have reached my kids. Coaches do need to reach kids, just not one-to-one.

I would imagine that you communicate to kids in a format where parents are automatically copied. My kids aren’t on HS teams, but i would imagine that it is not that hard. Am I missing something ?

This will make more sense once your kids are in high school. You definitely don't want to be copied on every message from coaches and teachers. Nor should you be. There is a certain degree of official information that students should receive and handle themselves. Its just that coaches and teachers should never exchange texts with individual students.

Spouse of a HS teacher here. DH uses Remind to text with his students so it’s all recorded and never shares personal phone numbers. The kids much prefer to text vs email or come to office hours, so he uses this platform. When they have big problem sets coming up, his phone just blows up with messages at all hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a shame that Shipley answered to two different managing groups (MCPS and a parent-led crew board) and neither entity was able to detect what was going on.

Crew is a somewhat unique sport in terms of needing to communicate with students about changes in venue due to weather, etc at odd times and sometimes, at the last minute. If left to their own devices, coaches find it easiest to communicate via text (albeit to the whole team or at least captains). Other crew teams insist on alternative means of communication so that no one is vulnerable to what happened in this case.

You communicate through the parents, not students. How is this even a question that you communicate through parents.

My kids ran track and cross country. Various meet-day texts filtered through me would have not have reached my kids. Coaches do need to reach kids, just not one-to-one.

I would imagine that you communicate to kids in a format where parents are automatically copied. My kids aren’t on HS teams, but i would imagine that it is not that hard. Am I missing something ?

This will make more sense once your kids are in high school. You definitely don't want to be copied on every message from coaches and teachers. Nor should you be. There is a certain degree of official information that students should receive and handle themselves. Its just that coaches and teachers should never exchange texts with individual students.

Spouse of a HS teacher here. DH uses Remind to text with his students so it’s all recorded and never shares personal phone numbers. The kids much prefer to text vs email or come to office hours, so he uses this platform. When they have big problem sets coming up, his phone just blows up with messages at all hours.

He should check with his principal. He may want to stop because he is in violation of the Code of Conduct.

If there’s a legit need, then MCPS should have it’s own texting ap to monitor what is being sent. Students also need to learn to send emails because that is how college professors answer questions. If the response isn’t immediate by your husband, then that’s the student’s problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes. A town hall is needed to discuss the problem.

Hahah are you new to MCPS? They will send people from Central Office to run it, just like they did with the redistricting meetings. Nothing will come from it.

What’s the alternative? Not answer parents questions and start the school year as usual?

MCPS time in and time out fails to put students first. Not protecting students from a teacher/coach who was a predator and worked in MCPS for 20 years is a great concern of many parents. What did teachers at Whitman, the principal, and MCPS Central Office know and when did they know it? Were there prior complaints about Shipley? What was done to investigate and address the complaints?

To send a letter but not have a town hall meeting is bs.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe that these wealthy, well-educated and connected parents couldn't sense that there was something off with their daughters and this coach. Are the parents that disconnected or are the girls that good at concealing their feelings? Twenty years, this guy, working in the system and feeding on these girls. Other teachers had to have sensed something!

[Anonymous]

I’m a Whitman parent whose daughter knew this teacher well (not crew team). The one-on-one texting and car rides are highly improper and were not known by parents or other teachers. (Spending time in a teachers classroom at lunch or after school is quite common, however.) It was known only that he favored female students. On the flip side, when my daughter was going through a hard time, he was the only teacher who seemed to care and talked her through it. It helped, and nothing improper happened between them. Part of being a good teacher and coach is being able to relate to your students. Clearly, he crossed the line.

[Anonymous]

Understatement of the year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a Whitman parent whose daughter knew this teacher well (not crew team). The one-on-one texting and car rides are highly improper and were not known by parents or other teachers. (Spending time in a teachers classroom at lunch or after school is quite common, however.) It was known only that he favored female students. On the flip side, when my daughter was going through a hard time, he was the only teacher who seemed to care and talked her through it. It helped, and nothing improper happened between them. Part of being a good teacher and coach is being able to relate to your students. Clearly, he crossed the line.

Predators groom many children at the same time and they seek out a weakness that he/she can exploit.

Teachers are supposed to treat all students equally. To favor female students over male students is a Title IX violation and another red flag.

This person was breaking the rules. People may not have known about the criminal acts, but staff, students, and parents knew he hung out with students in his classroom, he favored female students over male students, and he was privately texting students. Child predators do not look like the Boogie Man. They are the popular coaches/teachers that go out of their way to violate rules under the disguise of “helping” students.

Following the Code of Conduct protects students, staff, and MCPS. The danger is non enforcement and exceptions that a predator can exploit to sexually abuse students. The Child Abuse Webpage for MCPS used to list several years worth of letters to the community. For the majority of cases, predators violate the Code of Conduct before abusing a child. Waiting for the arrest to happen means MCPS missed an opportunity to protect a child before the abuse occurred.

More action is needed by MCPS to monitor staff. An independent investigation needs to happen with the Whitman case to find the gaps that need to be filed. The harm cannot be undone, but are there lessons to learn and improvement needed for child safety across MCPS? Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes. A town hall is needed to discuss the problem.

Hahah are you new to MCPS? They will send people from Central Office to run it, just like they did with the redistricting meetings. Nothing will come from it.

What’s the alternative? Not answer parents questions and start the school year as usual?

MCPS time in and time out fails to put students first. Not protecting students from a teacher/coach who was a predator and worked in MCPS for 20 years is a great concern of many parents. What did teachers at Whitman, the principal, and MCPS Central Office know and when did they know it? Were there prior complaints about Shipley? What was done to investigate and address the complaints?

To send a letter but not have a town hall meeting is bs.

They are not obliged to answer your questions, at all. Especially if it is an ongoing investigation, which it is. They only have to answer the questions of the police, if asked.
I really don't see how parents feel they can horn into any situation they don't like and start making demands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe that these wealthy, well-educated and connected parents couldn't sense that there was something off with their daughters and this coach. Are the parents that disconnected or are the girls that good at concealing their feelings? Twenty years, this guy, working in the system and feeding on these girls. Other teachers had to have sensed something!

I’m hearing he banged at least ten girls and probably more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a Whitman parent whose daughter knew this teacher well (not crew team). The one-on-one texting and car rides are highly improper and were not known by parents or other teachers. (Spending time in a teachers classroom at lunch or after school is quite common, however.) It was known only that he favored female students. On the flip side, when my daughter was going through a hard time, he was the only teacher who seemed to care and talked her through it. It helped, and nothing improper happened between them. Part of being a good teacher and coach is being able to relate to your students. Clearly, he crossed the line.

Predators groom many children at the same time and they seek out a weakness that he/she can exploit.

Teachers are supposed to treat all students equally. To favor female students over male students is a Title IX violation and another red flag.

This person was breaking the rules. People may not have known about the criminal acts, but staff, students, and parents knew he hung out with students in his classroom, he favored female students over male students, and he was privately texting students. Child predators do not look like the Boogie Man. They are the popular coaches/teachers that go out of their way to violate rules under the disguise of “helping” students.

Following the Code of Conduct protects students, staff, and MCPS. The danger is non enforcement and exceptions that a predator can exploit to sexually abuse students. The Child Abuse Webpage for MCPS used to list several years worth of letters to the community. For the majority of cases, predators violate the Code of Conduct before abusing a child. Waiting for the arrest to happen means MCPS missed an opportunity to protect a child before the abuse occurred.

More action is needed by MCPS to monitor staff. An independent investigation needs to happen with the Whitman case to find the gaps that need to be filed. The harm cannot be undone, but are there lessons to learn and improvement needed for child safety across MCPS? Yes.

+1. Whitman parent PP, your DD was a grooming target of Shipley's as well, it appears. If you read things like the article I posted upthread from the New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/09/24/in-plain-view), you can see that the predator plays the long game and casts a very wide net (being a teacher/coach allows them to do that--so many students, new ones every year). They proceed gradually, step by step, to gain the confidence of the victim--and often the parents--by tiptoeing over the line, a small line each time, and perhaps the tiptoeing is a grey area.

You say, "he was the only teacher who seemed to care." For Shipley, having you and DD consider him that way means that he scored (regardlesss of whether her "hard time" was academic or social in nature):
-He gets your daughter to open up to him, and so gets to know her vulnerabilities.
-He gets to see what kind of support systems she has.
-He finds out how strong these systems might be ('children of vigilant parents are deemed to risky', to paraphrase the article).
-He finds out what kind of boundaries she has, what kind of instincts she has... e.g. whether she appears uncomfortable when he crosses a teeny line (maybe a small comment by him that could be taken in different ways).
-He ends up with an image of "caring"/ "trusted helper" in your/DD's eyes which can offset any red flags that occur--even you admit that he was known to favor female students; I assume your DD, and possibly you as well, knew this at the time he helped with her issue...but she/(+you?) were willing to not question that, because during this time he was so helpful, right?
-He gets DD to share with her friends how understanding and "caring" he is, so that other students can come to him with their troubles.
-He gets one more person in the school community to become his defender if his actions are ever challenged.

For your DD's sake and the sake of your family, I'm glad nothing went further. It appears from your perspective that he didn't cross any obvious lines as she continued to interact with him for a while. Maybe it's because he sensed you were an involved parent, maybe because he saw your DD as someone who had a good instinct for what was appropriate or not. Maybe it was because he was in the process of getting sexually involved with one of the other victims and couldn't afford to open up another avenue to explore that might take more time and risk. For whatever reason, the fact that you/DD didn't see his actions as inappropriate doesn't mean that this behavior is ok and that he should be considered in the 'caring' /'great teacher' light.

I'll bet if you asked your DD about the specific questions, framing, etc. of their conversations, if she remembered them precisely (which she understandably may not), you could see that he was probing at least a little. You didn't say that she took a class from him. If she didn't ....you didn't find it unusual that a teacher who didn't have her for a class was the only one willing to help? Why would the other teachers/staff 'not have cared'? Perhaps she had a tip from other girls to go to him first? Or she found his warm, friendly manner very approachable and sought him out, and his prompt responsiveness made her not need to find other caring teachers/staff? Perhaps teachers/staff at the school are overwhelmed by kids facing issues like the one your DD was facing, and it's general practice for them just to keep a little distance (for their own self-preservation of time/energy)?

In hindsight, do you still think it's ok that he was so caring to your DD?

The underlined statement from the immediate PP is very astute and spot-on: "For the majority of cases, predators violate the Code of Conduct before abusing a child. Waiting for the arrest to happen means MCPS missed an opportunity to protect a child before the abuse occurred."

[Anonymous]

Someone needs to take a look at what constitutes an "investigation" within MCPS. What happens when someone is reported for violating the Code of Conduct? If a staff member is put on administrative leave, what are the parameters central office uses to decide whether they should be written up, transferred to another school, fired or returned to their previous position as if nothing happened? What does it mean to investigate someone? Do they call other teachers in the school and ask for their observations? Do they treat every staff member the same who is in this situation? Do they move quickly to get to the bottom of a situation? How many teachers and coaches are working in MCPS right now who have been investigated, and how are they monitored if at all to ensure kids are safe?